The presently disclosed method and apparatus are generally directed to a cooling unit for the cooling of electronic components. More particularly, the disclosed method and apparatus are directed to a modular fluid cooling unit.
One of the possibilities for cooling electronic components is the employment of arrays of air cooled heat sinks. Heat generated in an electronic component is conducted into the heat sinks and dissipated through the passage of a forced flow of ambient air within high aspect ratio flow channels between the heat sinks. Data centers with large computer and electronic systems vary greatly in airflow, raised floor height, chilled air availability and floor space. As a result, sometimes it is difficult to arrange air cooled machines in patterns that will allow for effective cooling. Each data center must be designed specifically to that data center's environmental conditions. In many cases, the machines must be spread out in order to prevent hot air recirculation. Other problems include impractical under-floor air flow rates, harsh environmental conditions, air conditioning power requirements, and the footprint of massive chillers. In future machines, as power levels per module increase, the combined heat dissipated by many machines in a confined workspace, whether they are independent or part of a large local area network (LAN), could exceed the capacity of the room air conditioning system in which the systems are placed. Refrigeration is an expensive alternative, but can also have similar problems.
The forgoing, in combination with current widespread trends in customer expectations for cooling computing systems which include: (1) redundancy, (2) versatility in installation and operating environment, (3) system expandability, (4) maintenance and system modifications performed without loss of system availability, and (5) reduction in the price per unit of computing capacity; creates a relatively untenable landscape and therefore the art is in need of improved cooling systems capable of resolving the need issues.